Dry air cooler



J. J. BOOTH DRY AIR COOLER Aug. 12, 1947.

2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 17, 1946 C/flCZfC/WOO 7W INVENTOR.

Aug. 12, 1947. J. J. BOOTH DRY AIR COOLER Filed June 17, 1946 C/JcWC/fipo 7/ I INVENTOR.

v 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Aug. 12, 1947 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DRY AIR COOLER Jack J. Booth, Dallas, Tex. Application June 17, 1946, Serial No. 677,153

6 Claims.

This invention relates to air cooling apparatus and more particularly to an air cooling apparatus in which air temperature is lowered by conduction.

The principal object of the invention is to provicle apparatus for cooling air entering a room or enclosure without the necessity for filtering the same through water saturated mats, as usually done in evaporative cooling methods, but instead, by constraining the inflowing air to move between and across the surfaces of juxtapositioned plates, or through narrow chambers defined by the plates, alternate ones of which chambers being closed along their tops and frontal portions. Provision is made for cascad-,

ing water continuously over the chambers during passage of air therethrough which dispels temperature from the plates, resulting in the lowering of the temperature of the air passing from said chambers into a room.

Another object of the invention is to provide a filter for the air entering the cooling chambers, said filter being composed preferably of a mat of fibrous material underlying the open bottoms of the dry chambers through which air is constrained to travel by fans or blowers. The water which is caused to precipitate onto the closed tops of the chambers from elevated spray nozzles is isolated from the filter, hence the latter remains dry, yet intercepts dust, insects and other foreign matter which would otherwise pass on into the room with the air.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a dry air cooler in which the exterior surfaces of the inflowing air chambers are covered wholly or in part by a water absorbent medium calculated to further increase the cooling effects on air passing through the chambers.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention has particular reference to certain features of accomplishment which will become apparent as the description proceeds, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of an air cooler in vertical section embodying the invention, taken between the plates defining the cooling chambers, as indicated at aa in Figure 3 and which plates are exposed to moisture.

Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 but in which the vertical section is taken through one of the cooling chambers as indicated at b-b in Figure 3.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view of the heat exchanging chamber assembly, taken on line 33 on Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a front elevational view in vertical section, taken on line 4-4 on Figure 2.

Figure 5 is a detail view of the water pump in vertical section.

Figure 6 is a plan view thereof, and

Figure 7 is a detail perspective view of the resilient valve of the pump. 7

Continuing with a more detailed description of the drawing, reference numeral I 0 denotes a cabinet having an open top with an overlying foraminous covering 1! l and an air inlet opening [2 having a foraminous covering l3. At the front or cool air exhaust end of the cabinet is an opening l4, over which is disposed adjustable louvers 15. a mat or filter iii of some suitable material having the characteristic of removing from the air passing therethrough, much of the floating foreign matter entrained therein. It will be understood that this filter mat is not wetted by the moisture in the cabinet, nor is it moistened at all insofar as the present invention is concerned, for reasons to be hereinafter explained.

It will become apparent presently how the machine operates to cause pre-chilled air to enter a room at extremely low humidity but at this point it is disclosed that to accomplish the expressed result, the arrangement must be such that the air to be cooled will enter and be exhausted from the cabinet without exposure to the water, used to extract the heat from the air.

With the foregoing in View, a heat exchanger is installed in the cabinet [0, consisting of a multiplicity of parallel plates ll', disposed vertically in the cabinet, and whose upper edges a terminate on a common, inclined plane. Each plate I! has parallel bends c and d adjacent the perimeter thereof to insure uniform relative spacing of the plates in assembly. The bent edges'of one plate along its inclined top and downwardly along the forward edge l8 meet and are secured to the oppositely bent top and front edges of the next adjacent plate while the lower edge I9 and rear edge 20 of said adjacent plate are met and joined by the next succeeding plate. By carrying out this construction throughout the width of the plate assembly ll, a cross-section therethrough, taken vertically or horizontally, will reveal a con.- tinuous zig-zag line, represented by the plates and their meeting edges throughout the assembly. This is borne out in Figure 3 which reveals that a plurality of parallel chambers :20 is formed, flanked by an equal number of chambers 2|.

At the bottom of the cabinet, there is placed similar blower or fan The chambers 20 are open only along their bottoms and at the rear thereof while the contrary is true of chambers 2! whose forward ends and tops are open. It remains therefore, that air caused to move upwardly into'the chambers 20 will find outlet only at their open ends 22 and will, under no circumstances, be exposed to water cascaded into chambers 2|, to collect and form in the closed bottoms of these chambers a common reservoir to be recirculated by a pump which will be presently described.

To constrain air to pass through chambers 20,

midity common to the well known evaporative type coolers.

To increase the effectiveness of the water sprays, the surfaces of the plates I! which are exposed to water, a sheet or strips 46 (Fig. 1) of a water absorbent material such as heavy, closely woven fabric. This fabric retains the water in intimate contact with the chamber walls for longer periods with obvious results. 7

While the machine is shown as a window cooler for best results, it is obvious that no restriction which may also be referred to as ducts, a blower pump for elevating water from the reservoir or series of communicating basings defined by chambers? I, to the spray heads 28 through risers 29. This pump consists of a chamber 30 having an elevated base 3| for admission of liquid through an opening 32 in the bottom' of the chamber, covered by a filter 33. Embracing the opening732 interiorly of the chamber 30 is a boss 34,,eircumferentially beaded'to retain 'a rubber valve, consisting of a cylindrical body 35, and a normally collapsed mouth 36,-which is expanded by suction created by pulsations of a rubber diaphragm'S'l. The diaphragm is held in position over the upper end of chamber 30 by a threaded ring38.,

-To actuate the diaphragm 31,2, connecting rod 39 has one end secured to the center and'extending upwardly, the opposite end of this rod carries an eccentric ring 49, embracing a disc AI mounted on the motor shaft 24. Thus, it will'be seen that as the motor shaft rotates, the'rod 39 will reciprocate to pulsate the diaphragm, thereby to draw water through the 1 valve head 35 whose inherent resiliency causes the same to close periodically as the diaphragm is movedupwardly, thereby preventing egress of water from chamber 30 except through pipes 42 simultaneously to force water upwardly into nozzles 28, which latter, incidentally may be'of a construction identical to that of the valve head 35.

To insure a uniform level of water in the com-, mon reservoir created by the chambers 21, a conventional valve 43 (Fig. 4) is actuated by a float 44 to evacuate excess quantities of water through drain pipe 45.

'Ffro the foregoing it is apparent that with chambers 2| open to the water escaping from the spray heads 28, the interior wall surfaces thereof are covered oontinuouslywith a thin sheet or film of water. Simultaneously, air is forcibly brought against these wetted surfaces by the fan 25 for evaporation and consequent cooling of the water which dispels heat from the plates I! which constitute the .walls of the chambers. As a result, the isolated air chambers 2!) become quite cold and -the temperature; of the air constrained to flow therethrough by the fan 23 is lowered to a comfortable degree without the attendant hus tent of :the invention,

the cabinet through ing claims therefor.

diaphragm at its to use is intended. Moreover,

and modifications may be made from time to' certain changes time in the construction of the machine as described without departing from the spirit or inas described in the follow- What is claimed is: I

1. An air cooling apparatus including a cabinet having front, top and bottom openings and a controlled rear opening, a heat exchanger insaid cabinet comprising an assembly of parallel chambers, every other chamber in said assembly being open, along its top and front to define an intermediate chamber open at its :bottom and rear, said chambers forming respectively water and air chambers, the water chambers being numerically one less than the air chambers; means for cascading water into said water chambers to continuously moisten the walls thereof, means including the walls of said water chambers for constraining air to pass through the front opening of said cabinet across the walls of said chambers and outwardly through the top of said cabinet, means including the walls of said airchambers for causing air to pass through the bottom of said cabinet, through said air chambers and outwardly through the rear of said cabinet, and meansfor directing the water collected in the water cham- 1 bers to the cascading means.

2. An air cooler including a cabinet having air inlets at its front and bottom and air outlets at its top and rear, means prohibiting intermingling of air entering through said separate inlets said means comprising parallel chambers in said cabi-' net, alternate ones being closed to the lower por tion of said cabinet, the remaining chambers being closed to the upper portion of said cabinet, means for continuously wetting the'inner wall,

surfaces of said first chambersineans including the walls of the first chambers for circulating air thereacross, means including the walls of the second chambers for constraining airto pass through said second chambers, losing temperature in passage, and means for depriving the latter air of entrained foreign matter.

3. An air cooler including a 'heat exchanger comprising a plurality of vertically disposed and closely spaced, parallel chambers, certain of said I chambers being closed along their bottom and 7 rear portions to define a set of similar chambers,

the rest of said chambers being closed along the tops and front portions to define a second setjof similar chambers, means for continuously wetting the interior wall surfaces of said first mentioned chambers, means including the walls of the first set-of chambers for passing a stream of air across" the surfaces thereof to cool the interiorsof said second chambers and means including the walls of the second set of'chambers for constraining a separate stream of air to pass therethrough.

4. An air cooler including a heat exchanger comprising vertically disposed non-communicat-F parallelism, the'boting chambers arranged in are coated wholly or in part by including the Walls of the second set of chambers 10 for causing a stream of secondary air to pass therethrough.

5. A cooler as set forth in claim 4, in which the heat exchanger is positioned in a cabinet having air inlets in its front and bottom, and 15 having air outlets in its top and rear, the heat exchanger separating the air inlets and. outlets.

6. A cooler as set forth in claim 4, having separate outlets for the primary and secondary air.

JACK J. BOOTH.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,209,999 Patch Aug. 6, 1940 2,107,280 Ballard Feb. 8, 1938 

